JERRY SEINFELD IS BIG FOOT!

Seinfeld's cozy Colorado digs: "You ever noticed how celebrities need 500 rooms to feel at home?"

Okay okay, I needed a catchy title, but it's relevant.

I read an article recently about a mammoth home Seinfeld is selling. You know the kind: 14,200-square-foot interior (the joint also has a deck the size of an airport tarmac); 11 bedrooms; 11 full bathrooms and three half baths; and a great room that looks like it took an entire forest to build. Asking price: $18.25 million. The kind of place you definitely need when you go on vacation and take half of New York City with you.

MoneyWatch.com (of course) reports that the "enormous compound is only a small part of Seinfeld’s massive real estate portfolio," which also includes the East Hampton estate that he copped off Billy Joel for the low low price of $25.6 million.

Now, I'm of the opinion that Jerry Seinfeld is one of the best entertainers around. But I think high-profile celebs like he are insanely overpaid (and TV should be publicly controlled, not run by profit-mongering corporations) and tend to live obscenely extravagant lifestyles. The kind of sickeningly self-indulgent spending that my mother has always referred to as "wicked." Mum's no fool.

Anyway, when I read the Seinfeld article, I wondered: What is this guy's ecological footprint? Hey, I have no reason to doubt that he's a nice person and he certainly brings joy to people. But does that entitle him (or anyone) to hack up the environment like John Bunyon on steroids. (Not to mention the accumulation of wealth that, if not spent on mansions and Porsches could, I dunno, save lives.)

Well, Seinfeld was just an example to illustrate a point. I've already talked about CEOs in this blog. But this stuff applies to all of us -- to one degree or another. I believe we should all ask ourselves questions like: How much is enough? What do I really need? What is my ecological footprint?


What is an "ecological footprint"?

Here are a couple of plain-English definitions of "ecological footprint":

1/ A measure of how much biologically productive land and water area an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates using prevailing technology and resource management practices;

2/ the amount of productive land appropriated on average by each person (in the world, a country, etc) for food, water, transport, housing, waste management, and other purposes.

You have one, I have one, America has one. Every individual, community and country has one. The problem is that our eco footprints are way too big -- our resource usage, our wastefulness, and our sheer greed are simply unsustainable. And we're in a hurry to crash.


"Need" Vs. "Want"

I've often asked people the question "Why do you need a big car/big house/fifty pairs of shoes/etc etc?" and received the answer "Because I want it/them!" And the answer comes without a hint of irony, without a whiff of the notion that there's a huge divide between "need" and "want" and a lot of people, in the Third World in particular, are tumbling into that chasm. At it's killing the planet herself.

Just as there's the concept of "peak oil," there's essentially a "peak everything." The days of houses on tasty blocks of land are numbered. We have to accept that. The gas guzzler must go. Shopping for the sake of shopping must, and will, atrophy. Bottled water is a disastrous gimmick that has to end. The list goes on.

I can honestly see a day when the government can't push the truth to one side any longer and there will be limits on a variety of things and fines for not recycling. Finite resources and insane consumption. You do the math.


What to Do?

You already know this answer to this, right? It's commonsense. Cut back. Use less. Recycle everything possible. Buy used, not new. Live more modestly. Don't live a consumer-junkie lifestyle. Accumulating isn't living; and it just may well be the fast track to murdering the planet.

Read up on the facts and talk about this stuff. Spread the word.

On the large scale, it's the usual things: sign petitions, write to your congressman, join environmental groups, picket corporations, do anything you can to pressure for limits, controls and regulation when it comes to any kind of environmental devastation and degradation. If you know how to use the Internet, it's pretty easy to do quite a lot: If you're willing to put forth a modicum of effort.

Live an activist's life in everything you do. Think like an activist. From the small, to the big. It's easier than you think. And the payoff is pretty cool: survival.

This is getting too long. We'll pick it up again. Maybe a bit more on consumption.

Take care and be practical,
Adrian

IMPORTANT FOOTNOTE: Death row inmate Troy Davis, about whom I've written on more than one occasion, is now scheduled to be executed on Sept. 21. Not only is the case against him full of holes, to execute anyone demeans the humanity of us all. Please GO HERE to sign a petition to try and win clemency for Troy Davis. You can also GO HERE to help spread the word. Thank you!

AMERICA IS IN DECAY

A sign of the times

There have been books written about the decline of the America "empire."

Let's keep this closer to home and just focus on the internal decay that our faux capitalism, insane consumption, elitist political system, and widespread sense of hopelessness has got us into.

The Huffington Post website ran an important article today entitled "RENT OR FOOD." In short, the article looks at the fact that millions of American households have such meager budgets that they are forced to choose between the essentials of life: food and shelter.

Bear in mind that this kind of thing has been an issue for the poor for as long as anyone cares to remember.

So the Third World within America -- propagandized as luckiest/greatest country in the world -- is getting big. That should be no shock since the rich are getting richer (it's not hard when you dodge taxes and your best buddies are on Capitol Hill) and the poor, and everyone else, are getting poorer.

Yes, many of us do need to budget our spending better: We are a nation of consumption fools, after all. And most of the stuff we buy today is in the back of the closet or on a junk pile in a year or two, right? Compare that to people who have scarcely enough food and clothes. Who many not be able to afford heat in winter. Who never get to see a doctor. That's the reality of our country. Not the "luckiest/greatest" BS that the politicians sell to us as an opiate. Besides, our goal should be "kindest."

But our spending is just a few drops in the bucket. The real issue is the horrendously unfair distribution of wealth in this country (and around the world!). It seems to me that sooner or later things will get bad enough that people will be in the streets in their millions and there will be radical change. That's the belief I cling to -- and it is a genuine belief.

In the meantime:

1/ Protest stupid/unfair taxes as well as the tax breaks and exemptions enjoyed by the rich and by corporations.
2/ Vote at the checkout: Buy things you need, not what you merely want. Buy organic. Companies note what sells and tend to stock that, naturally enough. And any money you save can be used to bolster your household budget or, if you are able, be given in part or whole to those less fortunate.
3/ Recycle everything: Clothes, cars, oil, metals, housing materials... check the Web and see just how much can be reused.
4/ Keep the pressure on the politicians and corporations. Let them know what you think and what you won't tolerate.
5/ Push for cheaper, safer, cleaner power sources.
6/ Volunteer and donate.
7/ Get active. Join groups that push economic issues. There is strength -- and change -- in numbers! You can participate a little or a lot. Again, just check the Web for these groups.
8/ Sign up to get online petitions, then pass them on.
9/ We need to repair our own attitudes as well as help others.
10/ Spread the word and stir up action any way you can!

There are other things, of course. But that's a good start. We need to change the structure of our society: and that is underway with the massive growth of the socio-politically aware "class." Change is fermenting. In the meantime, do whatever you can, whenever you can. Even that sandwich to a person living on the streets (a person!) fills a stomach and sends a message. Viral networking.

We have to win a better world or there will be no world soon enough. And to win it, we must fight to get it back from the robber barons who hold the whip.

We can and we will!

Take care,
Adrian

IF YOU FOUND THIS BLOG POST INTERESTING you might also like THE ECONOMY -- NOT SO HARD TO FIX, FDR's SECOND BILL OF RIGHTS, or TAXES: MICHAEL MOORE TELLING IT HOW IT IS.